In a miniaturised terminal fitting, a separate protective cover made of stainless steel is provided in order to prevent a change of shape of a resilient contact due to external force or the like. For example, a female fitting shown in FIG. 7 of this specification has a protective cover 1 formed in a tubular shape, its anterior end having lances 2 formed thereon. This cover 1 is placed on the anterior end of a terminal fitting 3 and is then fixed by means of spot soldering (at the spots indicated by blackened circles in FIG. 7).
The protective cover is formed by folding over a single piece of sheet metal. Consequently, in the case where a plurality of bent portions exist, it is necessary to carry out the bending in sequence according to a specified procedure. With an increase in the number of places to be bent, there is an accompanying increase in the time required for forming the protective cover, and it becomes very difficult to increase productivity.
The present invention has been developed after taking the above problem into consideration and aims to present a terminal fitting which gives high productivity.